


it begins and it ends and begins with her.

by harlxquinn



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: But any chapters with that will be marked nsfw as appropriate, Maybe a bit smutty later, Other, There’s a chance i might make this into something longer, for now this is where i’ll be throwing my plot ideas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28450158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harlxquinn/pseuds/harlxquinn
Summary: The Nomad and The Rockerboy. What a pair they make.
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand & Female V, Johnny Silverhand/Female V
Comments: 13
Kudos: 129





	1. i don’t know where she starts, i begin.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If V witnessed the events of the night Johnny attacked Arasaka Tower in the time she was dead, just what did Johnny experience before that first meeting in her apartment?

The first thing Johnny experiences when he wakes up in V’s head is claustrophobic panic, crammed into the tiniest server space beside her broad friend - _Jackie -_ as they barely escape detection from Saburo Arasaka’s bodyguard. It’s his own fury that blazes through him at the sight of Adam Smasher and Saburo - though there’s a distinct sense of sadistic glee that he feels watching Yorinobu choke his father to death - but the unfamiliar horror that wells up in his throat is someone else’s.

He only wishes he could have killed the old man himself

The pace of these alien memories quickly spills into panic; their netrunner on comms screaming about being made as she goes silent, the aborted idea to take Saburo’s transport, edging out onto a rail-slicked ledge only to be spotted by a drone, forcing them into a stomach churning dive and crashing through a glass roof. The way his stomach drops as he comes back to his senses to see deep crimson seeping through Jackie’s shirt is both alien and familiar, and he can’t understand why he’s so consumed by the feeling that they need to get out of this hotel _now._

The face he catches glimpses of in their stealthy escape is unfamiliar: violet eyes, cheekbones outlined with gold augments, dark blue hair bleeding down to crimson tips. Pretty enough, even with the grim determination that sets in as she hacks and stealths her way through Arasaka guards and down into the lobby, forced into a frenzied firefight against a security bot and a mad dash from the elevator into the back of a parked taxi that speeds out of the parking garage, almost being crushed by Smasher before it whirls away into the city streets.

The elation of a successful escape is cut short as the AI comments on Jackie’s condition and Johnny is almost overwhelmed by V’s panic as she rips off the stupid corpo suit jacket to try and press it against the wound, furiously screaming at Delamain to get them to a ripperdoc. But even as he detachedly answers that it’s not possible, a cold weight of realisation falls into place as Jackie slips a vaguely familiar glowing chip into place behind her ear before his bloody hand goes limp in hers and the light fades from his eyes.

The way the bottom seems to drop out of her world and her thoughts turn to white noise at Jackie’s death feels far more like his discovery of Alt in that Arasaka base than he wants to remember, but instead of the blazing rage that had flooded through him, V instead goes numb. The drive to one of the seediest looking motels he’s ever seen passes in a blur of neon and rain against the cab window, as V can’t bring herself to look at the corpse in the seat beside her.

She comes back to herself at Delamain’s steady coaxing, shakily telling him to send Jackie to his mother and giving him one last goodbye before she stumbles out of the car and into the motel. Dexter does little but rile her up like a pissed off cat, and even when she steps into the bathroom to wash Jackie’s blood from her face and hands, she slams her fist into the glass out of sheer frustration in a blaze of pain. And even as cold fear settles into her throat as Dex levels a gun in her face, she seems determined to go out snarling at how thoroughly _fucked_ this whole mess had been.

The darkness swallows him again for a while, but not as final as it had felt before. Something feels like it’s weighing him down, vaguely reminiscent of getting wasted after a concert or coming around in the ripper’s office in the wake of his near disembowellment. He comes in and out to snatches of conversation about him, about some biochip, and V’s familiar voice on the verge of tears about how she doesn’t want to die. It’s not until later that he’s able to push himself out of the medically induced stupor, as V’s violet eyes flutter open to squint up at him from where she’d passed out on the bed.

“Gotta get out of here. Understand?”


	2. she digs right in, under the skin.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny learns a little more about V as their psyches continue to bleed together, and finds himself (maybe, just maybe) growing a little more fond of her than he’ll ever admit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for canon typical violence and Raffen being canonically skeevy fucks.

V’s more at home in the Aldecados camp than Johnny thinks he’s ever seen her in the city. There’s a weight that seems to have lifted from her shoulders as she sits next to Panam with a beer, laughing at some dumb joke from one of the other nomads around their bonfire. Her smile makes her seem younger, not the almost sneer she had adopted while playing nice with the Voodoo Boys before they’d attempted to flatline her, and he’s quietly glad that she’s found some way to blow off the stress that had ben gnawing away at her since they’d been thrown together.

“You seem chipper tonight, Princess,” he hummed in amusement as he settled down next to V where she had dramatically sprawled out on her back as the nomads had slowly started trickling away to sleep or take up watch.

“Mmhmm,” she replied, shifting a little to look at him and propping an arm behind her head, “Y’know how _long_ it’s been since I got a chance to come out here and just spend a night under the stars?”

He has some idea, her memories of wheedling a night of camping out of Jackie not long after her arrival in the city once she’d found that perfect spot and good naturedly enduring his grousing about the crick in his neck as they’d driven back to the city for a disgustingly greasy breakfast as vivid as if he had lived them himself. 

“A long fuckin’ time?”

“A _long_ fucking time,” she agreed, grinning as she sat up, “I should do it _more,_ y’know? This used to be my whole world.”

She dramatically swept a hand around the camp to emphasise her words, and while Johnny does understand she means - the cameraderie and sense of family - he can’t resist the urge to take a sly jab at her, especially when the creeping sensation of her drinking is starting to prick at his own dulled senses.

“Too much sand for me. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere. You ever tried getting sand out of leather pants? ‘s not fuckin’ fun, I’ll tell you that.”

V laughed, before clapping a hand over her mouth as she managed to let out a particularly ungraceful snort that only made her laugh harder, curling closer to rest her head against Johnny’s shoulder. The increasingly familiar tug of sharpness near V’s heart worms its way to him once more, but Johnny pays it no mind.

“You’re an ass,” she smiled softly, violet eyes and golden augments reflecting the dying fire as she stared into the flames.

“And you’re drunk, Princess,” he replied, “Should go sleep it off. You’re a terrible driver at the best of times.”

“I grew up behind the wheel, thank you very much,” V teased, nudging his shoulder before standing up, brushing down her Samurai cargo pants, “But for once, I defer to your judgement. ”

“Holy _shit_ , it’s a fuckin’ miracle!”

V merely flipped him off over one shoulder as she headed into the tent the clan had allowed her to use, making him laugh and shake his head as she headed off to bed.

— — — — — 

Sleep has probably been one of the most bizarre things to experience between the two of them since Johnny woke up in V’s head. He didn’t necessarily rest in the same way as she did: it was more like he was resting his eyes, vaguely aware of whatever was going on around them, and far more likely to see things in V’s head she did her damndest during her waking hours to keep from bleeding through to his ever encroaching hold on her mind.

He finds himself rolling through the starlit desert, hand trailing through the air as he hangs it from the open car window. But it’s not his cybernetic arm: the hand is smaller and more feminine. _V’s_ arm, he realises. In the driver’s seat beside him, her aunt Hera grins over as the comms crackle to life from elsewhere in the convoy, mentioning something about keeping a sharp eye for Raffen, before the night explodes in fire and glass.

Pain _blazes_ across his face as the car flips nauseatingly, rolling to a harsh stop against a boulder and throwing V against one of the roll bars with a sickening crunch and a yelp of pain. He can feel the blood streaming down her face - _the scar on her forehead_ \- and is sickeningly aware that it’s not all V’s from the single image of the gruesome remains of the driver’s seat that is seared into her mind. Outside, there’s flames and gunfire and wild hyena like laughter, and as the smell of petrol suddenly assaults her senses, she squirms among the broken glass and twisted metal to kick out the remnants of the windshield to make her escape from the wreckage. Her left ankle blazes with pain - got to be broken - but she eventually makes a gap big enough for her to crawl out of.

She’s halfway out of the car as a spray of bullets sings through the air over her head, making her slam her hands over her head and press her body as far to the ground as she can to make herself as small a target as possible. Though the fighting around her, she decides on a moment to make a stumbling, panicked run into the darkness, pain lancing through her side from what is unmistakeably broken ribs. Before she can even really find somewhere to hide, a fist slams into the side of her head, sending her to the ground anr before she can even start to scramble away, someone roughly throws her onto her back and plants their weight across her body, pinning her to the ground. 

The Raffen above her is easily twice her size, leering down at her through crimson, Maelstrom-esque optics with a smile that manages to send shivers down Johnny’s spine, never mind the palpable fear V feels. As he leans down unbearably close to sniff her hair, the tiny whimper of terror that escapes V’s lips is absolutely heartbreaking.

“Aint you a pretty little kitten?” he whispers, and V suddnely becomes all too aware of the _huge_ fucking knife in his hand, “Gonna have some _fun_ with you - “

She manages to squirm an arm free and lashes out with pure survival instinct, raking her fingernails down his cheek.

“ _You_ _stupid little bitch_!”

All the air suddenly leaves her lungs as the knife slides almost effortlessly into her stomach, yet before he can try and finish off the job a bullet whizzes across the battlefield to slam into the side of his head as vaguely familiar voices scream her name.

“ ** _V-!”_**

Johnny slams back to the waking world at the same time V does, disorientated for a moment before he realises Panam is crouched by V’s cot, dark eyes full of concern as V clings to her arm gasping for air like she’d been saved from a drowing. For now, he holds back in the recesses of her mind, allowing her a chance to calm down

“Fuck, V. You gave us a goddamn heart attack. Are you okay?”

V’s eyes flit around the tent, an animal sort of panic clinging to her as she searches for the phantom danger. Once she’s satisfied there’s no impending threat, the death grip she has on Panam eases, and the jackhammer beat of her heart finally begins to calm.

“I’m fine. Just...just bad dreams. Memories I specifically haven’t looked at in a long damn time.”

“...is it Silverhand?” the brunette asks, a quiet promise of anger in her words, and he can’t help but glitch into existence behind her, letting out a derisive snort. His sudden appearance makes V start briefly, but he also notices the tiniest of relieved smiles that flits across her features to see him.

“Nah, he’s a dick, but he’s not that much of a dick,” V replied, giving Panam’s arm a gentle squeeze of reassurance, “Just shit that got stirred up going after the Raffen.”

The understanding in Panam’s face at the explination calms them both, and she puts her hand on top of V’s to squeeze it back.

“You wanna talk about it or anything, you know where to find me.”

“Thanks, Panam.” 

As soon as they’re alone again, V sighs, leaning forward on her knees to rub her hands over her face. 

“Guess you got a load of my unresolved childhood trauma too, huh?”

“Unfortunately,” he replied, glitching into the worn plastic chair in the corner of the tent.

“Guess it’s only fair for what I saw in the net,” she sighed, “We saw each other fuckin’ _die,_ I saw the whole thing with Alt. Not exactly surprised we’re starting to see other shit.”

“...gotta admit it makes me feel like a bastard that shit like,” he waved a hand in her general direction, for once at a loss for words of how to desceibe what he’s seen, “All _that_ is getting dragged up because of the chip.”

“Neither of us asked for this, Johnny. We’ve just gotta deal with it.”

“Yeah. You gonna try and get some more sleep?”

“Will you - ?” V paused, a flicker of embarassment spiking through her to him, “I mean, do you mind staying until I do? Feel like I’ll find it easier to get back to sleep with someone else around.”

“You going soft on me, Princess?” he smirked, but moved to sprawl back on the far side of the tiny cot anyway.

“Shut the fuck up, Rockerboy,” V replied with a grin, poking him in the side as she squeezed into the remaining space, curling up against his side. That familiar ache somewhere near V’s heart curled through his chest again. He’d really have to mention that to her one of these days.

“Sleep well, V.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot my dumb reference 😂


	3. baby they ain’t got a clue, can’t love me like you. [NSFW]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the wake of their campaign to dig into Arasaka’s dirty little secrets, V and Johnny finally have the chance to celebrate having their own bodies again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW as hell ahead, for all that celebratory sex 😂 This is the first time I’ve written smut that I shared outside my very indulgent friends in forever.

The first night they’re both feeling up to heading out to celebrate their return to Night City, V had disappeared from the Afterlife.

Johnny hadn’t even really noticed until he had turned around and she’d disappeared from the booth they’d set up in with their friends like a ghost. They’d only agreed to the party tonight since they’d finally felt well enough to put their new bodies to the test after the weeks of digging through Arasaka’s dirty little secrets to find the cloning facility, the engram transfers and weeks of travelling with the Aldecados. And on top of that, they’d basically spent three days holed up in the new penthouse mansion V had bought after the successful procedure, doing little more than sleep and order in food as they continued to adjust to being back in their own bodies, and both alive again.

Poking his head around the edge of the booth to look out across the main bar, he fails to spot V’s familiar shock of blue and red hair, but somewhere in the back of his mind, the strange residual link that seemed to be the one remnant of living in each other’s heads for so long prickles with a distinct sense of mischief. What _is_ she up to?

He locked eyes with Claire as she broke away from another customer, moving to the staff entrance to behind the bar as he headed over.

“You looking for V?”

“Like you read my mind,” he replied, “Guessing you saw where she went?”

“She said when you finally noticed she was gone, that you should head home. Didn’t say why.”

“Gotcha. Be seein’ you.”

Admittedly, he was a little confused as to why she’d slipped away, and as he made a stop at the coat room for his jacket, the feeling only intensified as the staff member told him that it had already been collected. He pulled out his holo to send a quick message to his wayward little merc as he headed for the stairs.

**J 🎸**

_Did you take my jacket?_

**V 🎢**

_;)_

Pausing to frown at the vague message, he turned to start making his way back to the penthouse, admittedly curious as to just what she was plotting. As he emerged from the lift, the house seemed awash in candlelight, only further heightening his curiosity.

“V? You here?” he called out, swiping a hand over the lock as the door closed behind him.

“Johnny?” there was a distinctly overly sweet tone to Venus’ voice, and a very brief sound of quick footsteps coming to a stop at the edge of the bedroom balcony. A brief sense of alien nervousness flickered through him as he moved far enough into the ground floor to look up at her.

“Well it sure as shit isn’t Ker - “

His footsteps almost comically ground to a halt as he saw V leaning against the glass railing above, a small smirk curling the corners of her mouth as she seemed to sense the way his thoughts had come to a crashing stop. Her hair is loose around her shoulders, perhaps styled more than her usual look of ‘throw it into the easiest hairstyle to keep it out of the way’, and both her violet eyes and the golden augments trailing her cheekbones are lit from below from the familiar blue glow of the collar of his jacket. And as his eyes trail down her form, arousal settles low in his gut as he realises that the _only_ things she’s wearing are a pair of black lace underwear and _his fucking jacket,_ the dark lines of the snake tattoo coiling across her chest just visible from where it hung open. If there had ever been a moment since they’d known one another that she had lived up to her namesake, this was undoubtedly it.

“I was wondering how long it’d take you to notice I was gone,” she grinned, “Kinda thought I’d be waiting a bit longer.”

Johnny found himself taking the stairs almost two at a time without even really processing it, V turning to face him as he sweeps across the upper floor to pull her into a bruising kiss. She still tastes like those fruity abominations she’d had the audacity to call a drink that she had insisted on buying at the Afterlife and he can’t help but smile against her mouth at the small noise of surprise she makes as her hands come up to pull him closer by the collar.

“You’re an incorrigible little _minx_ , y’know,” he murmured, pulling back slightly to rest his forehead against hers, “How long were you planning this?”

“Hmm, a few hours,” she replied with a self satisfied smile, “I love our friends, but it suddenly occurred to me we hadn’t properly celebrated with just _us._ ”

Her hand had slowly slipped down his chest as she spoke, and she emphasised her point by moving to cup his groin, biting her bottom lip with a knowing smirk as she provoked a groan from him at the sudden pleasurable pressure.

“Well, how can I say no to that?”

It still baffles him sometimes, how in sync they can still be now they’re no longer two souls sharing the same body. In one fluid motion, V slips out of the jacket and hops up into Johnny’s waiting hands to wrap her legs around his waist so he can carry her even just the short distance to the bed, her hands around his neck to pull him into another kiss. As he deposits her onto the bed, the way her hair falls around her head makes her look almost ethereal, like some fallen angel.

Then she spreads her legs, running her hands up her stomach and smirking at him, and Johnny thinks _nah, a succubus is far more accurate._

Johnny kneels on the bed between V’s legs, sliding his hands up her thighs and continuing up over her hips to palm her breasts, making her gasp softly as she pressed into his touch. He ghosts his fingertips along the curling blank lines of her tattoo, teasing her nipples to hardness. It’s not the first time they’ve slept together, but there’s something delightfully different in the knowledge they have of one another being put to use now they have their own bodies.

“Ever told you how perfect your tits are?” he murmured, leaning down to trail his lips along the path of his fingers and sweep his tongue over her nipple, making V moan as she hooked a leg around his in an attempt to pull him closer so she can grind against him.

“Maybe once or twice,” she replied with a breathless giggle as he trailed his hand down over her stomach, the muscles twitching under his touch. If he’d been in any other sort of mood, he might have mercilessly taken advantage of the fact V was ticklish, but instead he pressed lower, groaning at the _beautiful_ moan he pulled from V as he brushed over her sex.

“Were you getting off before I got here, hmm? Took my jacket so you could wait for me to get back and fuck you like you really want?” He growled, “You’re _soaked_ , Princess.”

“ _Fuck_ , Johnny,” she gasped, hips rolling as he drew his fingers up through the wetness and rolled them over her clit. There’s almost no resistance as he slides two fingers inside her, and as he languidly fingered her, one of V’s hands flew to her mouth as her eyes fluttered closed. His metal hand moved up to pull her hand away from her face as he continued fucking her with his fingers.

“Wanna hear you sing for me.”

The gasps and whines V let out as she squirms at his touch are a symphony that he’s more than a little smug that only he gets to hear. He’s almost painfully hard as he watches her face, and as much as he wants to bring her to that glorious crescendo on his fingers, he wants to make her cum on his tongue even more. As he eases his hand free, there’s a distinctly annoyed look that flits across V’s face as she tries to sit back on her arms to glower at him, and he can’t help but laugh. She’s not exactly the most intimidating when she looks so thoroughly debauched like this, hair mussed, cheeks flushed and chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

“ _Why did_ \- “

“Easy, Princess,” he smirked, shifting so he could pull her underwear and his shirt off and throwing both somewhere over his shoulder, “‘m not done with you by a long shot.”

Wrapping his arms around her legs to keep her open for him, Johnny brought his mouth to trail along the inside of her thigh, grinning to himself as he felt V shudder at his stubble scratching over the sensitive skin. One of V’s hands found its way into his hair to give a gentle insistent tug to where she clearly wanted him, yet in response he nipped at her thigh with his teeth, making her squeak in surprise and let out a breathless laugh before he began to tease at her folds. Her nails dug lightly into his scalp as she moaned, making him even more determined to coax those incredible sounds from her. As he trailed his tongue from her entrance to her clit, V’s legs tensed as she tried to close them around his head, toes curling into the sheets.

“Oh _fuck_!”

Johnny had joked once, after the first time they’d slept together, that he could probably play V better than any guitar - to which she had tried to unsuccessfully throw a pillow at his engram form telling him to stop talking shit - but he couldn’t help thinking of that again as he coaxed her towards her climax, the steady rocking of her hips as she tried to chase his attentions turning into stuttering grinds backed with short gasps and broken begging. V finally comes with a moan so sweet, Johnny goes still so he can be sure he takes in every strangled high note, lapping at her cunt as she comes down from her high.

“Johnny…”

He answers by nuzzling against her inner thigh, pulling up just enough to meet her gaze. V shoots him a knowing grin, beckoning him up with one finger and he knows just what she wants him to do.

“C’mere Rockerboy.”

He steps off the bed just long enough to remove his pants and boots - god this was so much faster when he was just an engram in her head - and he practically prowls up the bed so he can kiss her again, grinding himself against her soaked folds.

“Need you inside me, Johnny,” V gasped, “ _Please._ ”

Well, he was hardly going to deny her when she begged him so sweetly. He presses into the warmth of her perfect pussy with a groan, and beneath him V arches back with a soft cry, baring her neck to him in a way that made him lean down to suck a hickey into the side of her neck just beneath her neural ports. She clenches around him as he does so, wrapping her legs around his waist to draw him closer and sighing happily as he starts to move. 

“You’re so fuckin’ preem, V,” he growls against her throat, “Drive me wild, y’know? Course you do, cause you do it on purpose.”

He knows all too well how much the combination of praise and dirty talk turns her on. He’s made her come with just his fingers in her pussy and whispering all the filthy things he’d like to do with her before. And the way she whines and practically melts into the sheets at his words is a sight he’s viciously pleased that only he gets to see.

“Little fuckin’ tease. Stealing my jacket because you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist fucking you like you need when I saw you in it. And you’re doing so well for me. Wish I could just fuck you all day, just like this. Keep your perfect pussy all to myself, just fucked out and _beautiful_.”

Johnny’s so focussed on pulling those incredible whines from V that he barely even notices when she shifts the position of her legs so she can hook her foot around his enough to flip him over so she can straddle his waist. He’s pulled out of her with the sudden motion, but V quickly moves a hand between them so she can guide him back into her slick heat, throwing her head back as her hips go flush with his and she braces her hands against his chest.

“ _Please move_ ,” she moans, and he brings his hands to her thighs, all too willing to oblige as he guides her up and down in his lap. She fit so well in his lap, like she was made for him and him alone. His fingers dug into her hips as she chased her pleasure, muscles twitching beneath his hands as she bounced up and down on his cock. It feels like he’s been on edge for hours and _fuck_ , maybe it has been, but he could watch V squirm above him like this forever. His muscles all feel coiled tight as he holds back, determined to make her come first. As V’s rhythm begins to slow into uneven rolls of her hips as her pleasure climbs once more, he moved his metal hand so he could press his thumb to her clit, making her cry out and curl over him as she clenches around his dick, breathlessly pleading for him to keep going as he rolls the nub once, twice and her swollen lips open in a wordless cry as she comes. He gets in a few more good thrusts before he feels the pressure build to a breaking point, his whole body feeling like it’s falling before the coil in his gut snaps. 

Johnny comes with a gasp of “ _Venus_ -“, cock throbbing as he fills her, V jolting with it and letting out a startled sob. He shudders all over and eventually has to pull out before the sensitivity is too much, V collapsing onto her back beside him. It’s quiet for a while save for their breathing as they come back down to earth, and he has to smile as he feels her fingers brush over his. When he looks over, the blissed out smile on her face makes his heart clench with that familiar sharp ache he’d felt sharing her head. God, that biochip ending up with her was the best thing that could’ve happened to him

“Good surprise?”

He laughed, rolling over so he can cup her cheek with one hand and kiss her again.

“The fuckin’ _best_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna probably dig into the details of just how I want them to get their own non-dying bodies back in the next few snippets!


	4. what do i do about this tattoo?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny finally gets a good look at V’s other ink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit short and silly, but the idea wouldn’t get out of my head after I saw a post on tumblr pointing out that the body tattoo with the snake actually has lyrics from Chippin’ In on the back part with the ram skull.
> 
> And the bit where Johnny references calling V adorable for being a Samurai fan is from my other fic, which I might move over into here a bit later since this is my random drabbles collection.

Fucking _Maelsteom._

V could almost hear Jackie complaining about them when they’d gone after the Flathead as she opened her apartment door, sighing as she set her katana down by her desk. That cyberpsycho Regina had called her about not long after sundown had gotten under her skin more than she’d like to admit, the bloody ritual bathed in red light and the target herself crawling out of a cooler full of ice and body parts like something out of a horror BD.

It had been a tough fight to subdue her without killing her, especially when she’d popped a set of mantis blades from her arms and had gone into a frenzy, and while she had managed it, she certainly hadn’t escaped the fight unscathed. She probably should have taken herself off to Vik to get him to patch her up, but the MaxDoc she’d taken after the fight had managed to mostly take care of the worst of the slashes before the ride home. She still needed to patch up the nastier wound she’d taken to the side before she went to bed.

Heading over to the bathroom, she shrugged out of her jacket with a groan and pulled her first aid kit out from under the sink. She’d thankfully restocked it pretty recently, though disinfecting the wound was going to be a particular pain in the ass, the mantis blade catching her high on her side along the line of her ribs. Carefully pulling the bloody vest away from where it had started to stick to her body on the ride home, she eased it off over her head with a groan, leaving her in just her bra. Angling in the mirror to get a good look at the wound, she couldn’t help pulling a face. This was going to be a painful one.

Prepping the bandages and disinfectant, V took a deep breath to brace herself against the pain before pouring the disinfectant over the wound. Stinging pain blazed white hot through her system, forcing her to screw her eyes shut and brace herself against the sink as her knees threatened to buckle. Letting out a groan, it took her a few moments to pull herself together and as she finally stood back up, Johnny was standing behind her, leaning against the wall and smirking at her.

“What’s got you so smug, Silverhand?”

“Oh, nothing,” he replied, clearly feigning being casual, “Just...appreciating your ink.”

For a moment, she had to pause and consider just what he was talking about before she realised the tattoos he was looking at were those on her back, the ram skull and Samurai lyrics. She instantly wants to curl in on herself with the crushing embarassment that flushes her cheeks bright red, burying her face in her hands to try and hide it, (even though there’s basically nothing she can hide from Johnny these days). The _last_ thing she’d even dreamed of when she had those lyrics from Chippin’ In inked was that she’d one day be sharing a brain with Johnny fucking Silverhand himself.

“Oh my _god_. _That’s_ what you’re staring at?”

“I said it before, it’s fuckin’ _adorable_ you’re such a fan,” he grinned in a way that made her believe he was never going to allow her to live this down, “Could always hop in the driver’s seat and sign your tits if you wanted to go ink something more personal.”

Balling up her bloody shirt, V turned to throw it at him, making him laugh as he glitched out of the way.

“C’mon V! Would have thought you’d love something like that, bein’ my biggest fan and all.”

“ _Johnny, I swear to fucking god_ -!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND THEN HE DID GET HER A MORE PERSONAL TATTOO


	5. wait for me, i’m coming with you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Venus and Johnny realise they might be more fond of one another than they were willing to admit.

As she cranks the first of the substation’s dials, the pain that flares through her head is almost enough to drive Venus to her knees. It’s taken too much effort to get to Hellman like this though, and she forces herself to keep moving to the next computer and the next, each overcharge activated feeling like someone is driving a nail into her temples. 

She piles back into Panam’s car with shaking hands, worrying that they’ve gone too far and as Panam speeds back out into the Badlands, Johnny appears in the back seat looking more unsettled than she ever remembers seeing him.

“V! Get the fuck out before something happens to the chip!”

“Thanks for the tip,” she reflexively snarks back around the pain and adrenaline rush of this mad escape from the power plant, “You know, I was just about to set up a picnic, maybe lay out, work on my base tan…”

“ _I mean it._ Watch out. Next one migh—“

As she turns her head to look back at him, the horror that settles into her brings a lump to her throat as she watches his image glitch in blue sparks between his usual casual lounging and screaming as though he was in pain before vanishing completely.

“Johnny?,” she calls out, panic building when there’s no response and nothing she can anchor onto across their now familiar connection in her head, “ _Johnny_?!”

It can’t be more than a few heartbeats before he reappears, slumped forward with a death grip on the back of Panam’s seat, but a familiar type of guilt twists something sharp in her chest before he does, her mind flooding with that same image of Jackie in the Delamain that haunts her nightmares when she does actually get some sleep. ‘ _You’ve gone and done it again, you silly little bitch,’_ her mind supplies entirely unhelpfully, ‘ _You’ve gotten another friend killed’._ The sheer relief that floods through her when he does return makes her let out a shaky breath she didn’t remember taking and she almost reaches back to give his hand a reassuring squeeze before she realises how utterly insane the action would appear to Panam. So instead, she lets him sit back and gather himself, flicking her eyes back to the road and the mission at hand.

“Ok, I’m fine,” he murmurs, sitting forward again, “It’s...it’s ok, just...it’s ok. I’m fine...Yeah...just - _delta the fuck out_.”

The rest of the job probably couldn’t have gone much worse if she’d tried, the deaths of the Aldecaldos weighing heavily on her mind as she manages to wrangle Hellman’s body to the Sunset. It’s almost hilarious how nobody seems to bat an eye at her lugging an unconscious corpo off Scorpion’s bike and into the room, even when she steps back outside for a moment to decompress and smoke. 

There’s very little she can hide from Johnny these days, and a part of her hopes whatever fluctuation the EMP had caused in the chip means he didn’t pick up on both the whirlwind of emotions she’d gone through in the car in the moment he’d disappeared. Where such a visceral reaction had even come from in the first place was utterly beyond her, but right now there were far more pressing matters to be dealing with. Flicking the butt of her cigarette onto the ground and crushing it under her boot, she pulled her holo out to send Takemura a message about her little guest.

“Let’s get this fuckin’ shitshow on the road.”

— — — — — 

Of course, Johnny _had_ felt just how violently Venus had freaked out as they’d sped away from the power plant. When he’d first woken up in her head, surrounded by memories of the mess at Konpeki, he might have used it to torment her, but over the last few weeks of watching her work, he’d grown infuriatingly fond of the ex nomad.

She was a weird one, as comfortable choking out Maelstrom gang members for the sake of a captured monk’s beliefs as she was slipping through a Tyger Claw stronghold, snapping necks and bundling their bodies into lockers with a brutal sort of efficiency. But it wasn’t even her frankly impressive merc skills: there had been few people capable of giving him as much shit back as he dished out. Even when he’d thrown her around her apartment, she’d snarled back at him with a venom that had admittedly thrown him for a loop as she’d exiled him back into the recesses of her mind. Living inside another person’s soul left little room to hold onto that same sort of resentment he’d had on that first night.

It also made seeing the Relic slowly erasing Venus’ psyche increasingly awful to watch, the malfunctions steadily growing worse as she continued to cough up blood. Even with her steadily worsening condition, she seemed hell bent on righting every wrong she stumbled across on top of chasing down Hellman or agreeing to visit his ex in cyberspace in the hope that she’d find any lead on how to save herself. But the malfunction that hits her out in the Badlands is the worst yet, dropping her in the middle of the motel car park so suddenly that she can barely even scream as she curls in on herself. The broken way she calls out for him twists sharply in his chest as he crouches down beside her, trying to supress his own panic

“You’re not dyin’ yet,” he replies, metal fingers curling gently around her shaking wrist as he does his best to reassure her, “I got you.”

And then, he finds himself flat on his back staring up at the dark sky, unceremoniously thrust into the driver’s seat as Venus passes out. It’s a bizarre sensation to finally have a body again, but the most overwhelming thing that strikes him is how _silent_ it is. 

And he fucking hates it.

He can still feel Venus’ presence thankfully, unconscious as she is, and the first priority that really strikes him as he pulls himself back to his feet is to get her body somewhere safe. He’s not entirely certain he’d be able to fight if they ran into anyone who had a bone to pick with V, even with her iron. As much as the Relic has been carving her away to make room for him, right now he still just feels _wrong_ in her skin.

Sliding into V’s Rattler, Johnny turned it back in the direction of the city, driving as carefully as he could for being behind the wheel again for the first time in half a century, (that, and the fact Venus would try to throttle him if he ended up wrecking her beloved car, as battered as it was). Racking his brain for a possibility of somewhere to hole up, most of the options that first come to mind are almost instantly thrown out. They’re not quite prepared to hit up the Afterlife again yet and it’s far too busy for someone to not notice V isn’t in the pilot’s chair. Same goes for getting back to her apartment, as much as she’d probably prefer seeing familiar surroundings when she wakes up. 

It hits him halfway back to her building to instead turn for Pacifica, a distinct thought simmering in the back of his mind that he doesn’t want Venus to think he’s just going to take hold of her body whenever he feels like it. The Pistis Sophia is probably the one place in this damn city that holds anything that he might reasonably be able to get hold of to make the promise that he suddenly wants to when Venus regains consciousness. It’s barely changed in the decades since he was last here, and for now there’s little he can do but wait.

As the first rays of sunlight begin to creep across the horizon, V still remains unconscious and now, Johnny finds he’s second guessing himself. He should have taken her straight to her ripper when she’d been out for this long, not out to this crumbling wreck of a hotel in search of something that might not even be here anymore. He’s such a fucking _gonk_. Making a move to stand and return to the car, a blur of static passes across his vision and his head swims. Rather than standing back up, he turns to rummage through V’s bag in search of Misty’s pills to try and stabilise his control for long enough to get them to Watson, before he realises that the sudden change is because Venus is stirring and attempting to reassert control of her body.

Lying back on the balcony where he’d spent most of the night so that she wouldn’t fall backwards and hurt herself, he can’t help but be relieved that she’s finally waking up, though he still might nudge her to go see Viktor. 

“Welcome back, Princess,” he murmured to himself, before relinquishing control back to Venus. When she finally blinks awake, violet eyes bleary and taking a moment to focus, he’s standing against the balcony edge, looking out over the ocean.

“Johnny...?”

“That smells the sea breeze. Get up. Pacific’s beautiful this time of day.”


	6. a thing of beauty, i know, will never fade away.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after her escape from the Net, Venus wakes in the Aldecaldos camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by all the man bun Johnny art going around tumblr and a discussion about Johnny in Aldecaldos gear in the discord!
> 
> Falls just after my planned chapters of ‘never let you slip’.

After so long in the Net, Venus can safely say that waking up in her own skin is a bizarre experience. There’s a certain level of disconnect between her mind waking up and her body realising it (though she vaguely recalls Alt mentioning it would likely take time to readjust and after all, it had barely been a full twenty four hours since Johnny had snatched her back to realspace). Eventually, her internal systems all seem to sync as her eyes flutter open to stare up at the familiar army green canvas of a tent. Outside, the sounds of the Aldecaldo camp in their daily action filter through the gaps, a fond familiarity blooming somewhere in her chest.

She’s admittedly surprised that she’s alone in the tent, as she sits up in the small cot. She can remember waking up from some nightmare in the middle of the night, only for Johnny to slip out of the other bed and curl up with her, but right now he’s nowhere to be seen. Though as she looks around, she can’t help but smile to herself as her eyes fall on a pile of clothes neatly folded on the other bed. It doesn’t take long for her to change into the familiar worn Samurai vest, black jeans and boots, shrugging on the jacket Saul had presented her with before setting the familiar weight of Johnny’s dog tags around her neck. She feels more like herself already.

Heading outside, she couldn’t help but smile slightly at the familiar sight of the other nomads bustling around the camp, a group of kids racing past her screaming and laughing at some game. She took a moment to glance around the camp looking for Johnny, yet as she fails to spot even the familiar gleam of his metal arm, a tendril of panic seems to start curling its way up her throat. Logically she knows it’s a ridiculous feeling when they had literally been curled up in bed together a few hours ago, but after so long living as one entity even after her months in the Net, not knowing where he is feels more wrong than she’d care to admit.

“V!”

Snapped out of her train of thought at the familiar voice, Venus turned to see Panam heading her way, an almost relieved smile on the other woman’s face as she barrelled into her in an enthusiastic hug she returned happily after the initial surprise at the gesture.

“It is good to see you awake,” Panam smiled as she pulled back, “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” V smiled back with a nod, “All still feels a little surreal, like all this is gonna turn back into the Net at any moment, but definitely happy to be back.”

Almost on cue, her stomach decided to rumble almost ridiculously loudly, making Panam laugh.

“And fit to eat a horse by the sounds of it. We should get you food.”

Falling into step beside the other woman as they headed in the direction of the food truck, V did another scan of the camp in search of Johnny as they climbed the steps, hoping her higher vantage spot would give her somewhat of a better chance at spotting him. Yet even from up there, she had no luck finding him.

“Hey Pan?” 

“Mm hmm?” she responded from the kitchen behind her.

“You seen Johnny this morning?”

As Panam moved to the railing beside her, pressing a coffee and a plate with at least three utterly  _ divine  _ smelling breakfast sandwiches into V’s hand, she took a look around before pointing off to the left towards a group of tables under the awning of one of the other trucks where Saul and Mitch were also sitting.

“Over there.”

Admittedly, the silhouette of Johnny that V had been looking for was the one that had been a part of her everyday for so long: Samurai emblazoned flak vest, worn leather pants and shoulder length dark hair. What she  _ hadn’t  _ been expecting, was the vision before her now. She’d barely taken him in during the times she’d been awake since her return yesterday, too exhausted to care about much beyond anything other than the fact he was still with her, but this was such a vast departure from the ‘fresh out of Arasaka Tower’ Rockerboy she’d grown so used to that it was no wonder she hadn’t recognised him straight away.

His hair - a little longer than it had been in his engram form - was pulled back into a rough bun, various locks already escaping. She hadn’t been able to see his arm as at least the top half was covered by his own rally jacket, similarly coloured to her own that Saul had presented her with before Mikoshi, and she could even see a pair of straps attached do it trailing down over a black vest and dark jeans. He almost looked like any other member of the clan and she’s only somewhat aware that she was staring in slack-jawed amazement when she felt Panam give her a light nudge with her hip.

“Nomad look suits your Rockerboy, I’ve gotta say.”

“He’s not  _ my  _ Rockerboy,” is the response that comes out of her mouth without thinking, and V can’t help but flush under the all too knowing look that Panam gives her in return. She’s still used to thinking that one of them wasn’t going to be walking out of Mikoshi alive, or hiding the twinge of jealousy she’d felt when Johnny had asked to take control of her body for his date night with Rogue. The idea that now they  _ both  _ have bodies that aren’t on the verge of flatlining is something she genuinely hadn’t thought about beyond their rushed plans in Mikoshi before she had sent him back to save them both.

“V, I have spent the last nine months with Silverhand practically driving himself into the ground to get you out of the Net again. If he’s not yours, he has a strange way of showing it when he could have just left with your old body. Now would you go talk to him? I do not think the man slept a wink last night with worry.”

Pulling a face at Panam (V has to wonder if this is what it would have been like to have a sister growing up), the two laughed before V moved in to give her a slightly awkward hug with her plate and mug balanced in one hand, before heading in Johnny’s direction. As she made her way down the steps at the other end of the truck, she waved at a few more greetings from other Aldecaldos before reaching the table and slipping into the bench beside Johnny as Saul excused himself, giving her a smile and a nod as he did so.

“Mornin’,” she smiled, a small well of glee bubbling up inside her at the surprise her appearance caused in Johnny, even behind his aviators. 

“Didn’t think we’d be seeing you up and around so soon, V,” Mitch smiled.

“Eh, can’t get rid of me that easily,” V replied as she took a sip of her coffee, leaning against Johnny’s shoulder, “I’m too stubborn to die and this one’s too stubborn to let me.”

“Can’t disagree with you there, kid.”

Somewhere behind her, Venus heard Panam shout for Mitch and she inwardly both loves and hates her for so blatantly engineering a chance for her and Johnny to talk as Mitch heads off. She knows all too well the precious commodity of even the illusion of privacy in a nomad clan. As Johnny snakes his metal arm around her shoulder to pull her closer and press a kiss to the top of her head, she can’t help but shiver slightly at his touch, far more solid and real than it had ever been in his engram form.

“You sure you’re feelin’ okay?” He asked quietly, and the genuine concern in his voice makes her heart ache as she leans up to kiss his cheek.

“Little disorientated, but I think I’ll be fine with a bit more rest,” she smiled, more than content to allow him to hold her close as she turns to her food, “‘m fuckin’  _ starving  _ though.”

“I was the same when I got plugged back into my own skin. Could’ve eaten until I puked,” he laughed as she tucked in.

“Definitely not used to not having you in my head yet, but I guess you having a proper body and the chip not killing me makes up for it. Guess I was right about Arasaka having you on ice somewhere.”

“Yeah, that was a fuckin’  _ weird  _ one. Gonna have to tell you that whole story at some point.”

“Oh it was  _ that  _ interesting, huh?” she teased, sensing the slight twinge of discomfort in discussing the topic, “By the way, you look good with this whole nomad look you’ve got going on. I was still expecting you to be in that flak vest and leather pants.”

“I’m not wearing leather in the fuckin’ desert, Princess,” he shot back, poking her in the side and grinning as he made her laugh, “Told you before, sand’s a bitch to deal with at the best of times. Don’t know what possessed you to keep wearing them in the Badlands all the time.”

“Cause my ass looked amazing and you enjoyed the view, you dick.”

“Well, now I know you’re back if you’re bein’ a cunt to me,” he replied with an over exaggerated pout.

“Stop your sulking, Johnny. I know you missed me.”

He had to laugh at that, nodding at her words.

“You’ve got me there, I’ve gotta admit. I really fuckin’ did, V.”

Shifting in her seat, Venus turned and slid Johnny’s aviators up onto his forehead, placing her hands on his cheeks to look into his face. The sensation of his stubble beneath her hands is still almost unbelievable, her wild spur of the moment hope about the true fate of his body solid and real in her grasp. 

“Good,” she smiled, moving so she could press her lips to his and allowing him to practically pull her into his lap as he kissed her back, “Cause I fucking missed you too, Rockerboy.”


End file.
